CHURCHMEN CONFER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 664, 16 May 1929, Page 16

CHURCHMEN CONFER

ANGLICAN MEN’S SOCIETY HOPE FOR CHURCH UNION Press Association O AMARU, Wednesday. The annual Dominion Conference of the Church of England Men’s Society opened here today. Among the visitors are Bishop Cherrington (Waikato), Bishop West-Watson (Christchurch) and Bishop Richards (Dunedin). Mr. Nash, secretary of the New Zealand Parliamentary Labour Party, is also present. The following officers were elected: President, Bishop Richards; vice-presi-dent, Mr. J. Snell (Wellington); Dominion secretary, the Rev. F. -S. Ransom (Petone); Dominion council, the archbishops and bishops of the province, the Rev. W. Raine (Carterton), Archdeacon Russell (Oamaru), the Rev. G. C. Blathway (Island Bay), the Rev. A. Lambert (Christchurch), and Messrs. Baker (Wellington), Chapman (Waikato), Rayner (Auckland), Nash (Dunedin); Dominion executive, Messrs. J. Snell, F. S. Ransom, J. N. Henderson, W. Nash and the Rev. N. S. Barnett. It was decided that the society should be organised on a diocesan basis, although provision was made for a Dominion organisation to keep the dioceses in touch with each other. In the evening addresses were given by Mr. Nash and Bishop Cherrington. The latter urged a reunion of the churches and said there was much to hope for in this respect. There was large ground for hope and confidence, but if they looked upon reunion as a dream which could not be fulfilled they had better give up altogether. "Things today are not as they were 50 years ago and the tendency now is to unite 1 and come together and not to separate ' and divide,” said the bishop.